


I Couldn't Save You From Me

by saturnine23sunshine45



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Character Turned Into Vampire, F/M, Human/Vampire Relationship, Vampire Bites, Vampire Turning, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27257290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saturnine23sunshine45/pseuds/saturnine23sunshine45
Summary: 'There was no question in Jughead. He knew what she was the moment he walked in. So she couldn’t for the life of her understand why he would ask so many questions. She told him as much and he flashed her a confident smile. It was what he did. Find answers to questions.“You’ll have to glamour him, of course,” Cheryl said the next night when he showed up again. “I can smell the arousal on him from here. He wants to die.”'Jughead encounters the last thing he expects. Vampires in Riverdale. And yet, he just can't help himself. A Halloween fic.
Relationships: Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39
Collections: 8th Bughead Fanfiction Awards - Nominees





	I Couldn't Save You From Me

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers in the tags I guess? This was a post-Halloween treat to myself and to others. No one really asked for this, but it turned into a monstrosity regardless.
> 
> Credit goes to all vampire lore and song Fireman by Jawbreaker where the title is taken from.

_If I was a vampire_

_I wouldn't suck your blood_

**\- Jawbreaker**

The sun was oppressive, coming through the blinds. Jughead’s eyes were heavy with sleep. He tried to open them, willing the events of last night to come to him. His mind was groggy, and it took a moment for him to fully recognize the familiar surroundings of the trailer. Even though his eyes adjusted to the mid-afternoon sun, the brilliance of the room still blinded him. His head was pounding and the harder he tried to recall anything about yesterday, the more it seemed to escape him.

He groaned, rolling as gracefully as he could off the couch. It was empty for now. Even more disappointingly empty was the fridge. He was ravenous. He couldn’t think of the last time he ate something. A feat of enormous magnitude. His headache was worsening, and he dreaded the notion of going outside to fend for some food. His survival instinct soon won out. He didn’t remember the sun ever being this bright before. He could make it to his bike but riding impaired seemed like a mistake. He was relieved when he located some old sunglasses of his father’s in the closest. It was a short distance to Pop’s from there.

Toni was waiting in the booth by the window when he came in. He didn’t take off the glasses, even in the cool relief of the restaurant.

“You look like hammered shit,” Toni said, without missing a beat. Jughead slid into the seat across from her. “You must have had some night.”

She said it with a knowledgeable tone. He had given up on trying to remember anything. It just made his head hurt more.

“Can you lower your voice?” he asked, lowering the blinds in the booth to shield him from the outside. It was only marginally better. “Your voice is grating.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without that hat,” Toni mused, ignoring his bad mood.

Jughead raked his fingers through his hair self-consciously. 

“I couldn’t find it in the trailer.” It was certainly a first and he felt naked without it. “Did I leave it at the Wyrm?”

Toni shrugged. “How would I know?”

That was odd. He usually only got hangovers like this if he had been drinking with the Serpents.

“You weren’t there last night?” Jughead asked.

“No,” Toni said slowly as though explaining this for the thousandth time. “You weren’t. You haven’t been around for weeks. You spend all your time at Thornhill.”

He understood her words on their own but throw them together and he was lost.

“Thornhill.”

“Are you alright?” Toni asked. “Sweet Pea said he saw you there last night.”

“Where?” His brain felt like it was full of bees. Everything was muddled and confused. As soon as Toni said Thornhill he could conjure the façade of the building, but there were no emotions attached to it. 

“Jesus,” Toni said. “How much did you have to drink last night?”

That was a very good question. He was relieved when the food came. Toni was watching him more studiously now as he shoved his burger into his mouth.

“Why would I go to some creepy abandoned house on the Northside?” Jughead asked between bites.

“Because it’s not abandoned.” She was taking that slow tone with him again. “The Blossoms bought it. They’ve been having parties there like every night. Sweet Pea was there stalking Josie. He was sure you were secretly dating some blonde girl he saw you with.”

Again, as soon as he absorbed the words, he thought he could recall an image. He was sure he saw in his mind a flash of blonde hair and the smell of something sweet. But when he tried to hold onto the memory, it escaped him. The taste of the burger wasn’t helping. The more he chewed it, the more it seemed rancid in his mouth. Never in his life had he spit out a burger at Pop’s.

Toni’s eyes widened in shock. “What is _wrong_ with you?”

“I don’t know,” Jughead said, staring at the ground up beef that came out of his mouth. It looked normal but the smell was making him sick. “There’s something wrong with it.”

No sooner had the words come out of his mouth than his stomach started to turn on him. He ran to the bathroom and made it before the contents of his stomach came up. He didn’t taste the bile that normally came with hungover induced vomit. All he saw was half digested burger. He gave himself a moment and when it didn’t seem as though there was anything left in his stomach, he got to his feet. He made his way to the sink and started to wash his hands. His reflection in the mirror was startling. Even with the sunglasses on, he could see how tired he was. His skin was paler than usual and his veins bluer. Even the fluorescents of the bathroom seemed to burn into him. He pumped the soap from the dispenser into his hand and started lathering it. He felt pain all over his body. Not just his head and eyes but even his gums were itching. Jughead rinsed his hands off, pushing up his sleeves to dry his wrists. 

Once again, he was taken aback. His wrists were lined with purplish bruises surrounding twin scabs. They looked fresh enough. Something that he should remember.

What the _fuck_?

His stomach was growling again. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t hungry for a burger. This was something else altogether. When Jughead stumbled out of the bathroom, Toni had already paid and was waiting to ambush him.

“Seriously,” she said with genuine concern. “Did something happen to you last night?”

Jughead wanted to know the answer to that question as well. All he knew was that the vision of Thornhill kept swimming behind his eyes. He could hear the steady beat of Toni’s heart. The low conversations at the back of the restaurant seemed louder than it should be. 

“If that Northside girl gave you some weird disease…” Toni warned.

“What girl?”

There was a girl. He knew that much. But he couldn’t string two thoughts together let alone figure out what she meant to him.

“Just the same girl you’ve ditched us to be with for the past week,” Toni chastised him. Her voice was softer now, her eyes narrowed.

“I have to go back,” he realized. He needed answers.

“Like I haven’t heard that one before,” Toni said with a roll of her eyes. “Are you really just strung out on some girl’s trim?”

“Yeah, you’re one to talk,” Jughead threw back at her, an attempt to make her smile.

She was right. Something was very wrong. His stomach was still churning but every thought of real food seemed wrong. Like lead in his stomach. Even through his sunglasses, the sun seemed to be searing his eyes. Every single person in this diner went _thump thump thump_.

Blood pumping through their heart.

“She’s not worth it,” Toni said. She took his arm, allowing him to lean on her for support. “Trust me.”

Toni led him towards the exit.

“Where are we going?”

“You need some fresh air.”

He regretted it the moment they stepped outside. If the grinding of voices was bad inside, outside was worsened by the increase of people. He shied away from Toni and quickly turned down the alley behind Pop’s. It was safer there. Shadier. Cooler. And there was something else. He wasn’t sure what drew him to the back until he let his mind settle for a moment. This was better. He couldn’t hear people’s constant chatter. His stomach growled again. A smell hit his nose and he wasn’t sure if the snarl was coming from him or his stomach. There was something he needed in this alley. 

He followed the smell, not caring where it was coming from. It smelled juicy and powerful. 

“ _Jughead_.” Toni’s tone of horror cleared his mind. For a moment, he wasn’t sure where he was.

His hands were gripping discarded, raw hamburger meat. He was crouched in the dumpster where he must have found it. But all that mattered was the delicious taste flooding his mouth.

“What the _fuck_?” Toni asked but he couldn’t stop. He tore into the meat, no matter how old it was. He scarfed it until there was nothing left. He knew logically he shouldn’t be rooting through a dumpster, but the smell had been too strong. 

As soon as the raw meat hit his stomach, something else happened. He was in the dumpster rooting for food, but he was also outside of his body. A series of memories seemed to hit him all at once. He felt Toni helping him out, but he couldn’t sustain his own weight. He hit the pavement hard. He didn’t feel a thing. Not physically. He felt yearning coursing through him. He thought it was to go back to Thornhill, a mansion he couldn’t remember ever going to. But now he could smell something familiar. Ferocity and protection. He had never smelled feelings before. 

_“Jughead, you shouldn’t have come back.”_

_“I had to.”_

The memories were hitting him strongly now. He heard his own voice in his head, but he couldn’t remember where it had come from.

The girl.

He could see her now. Devastating. Pretty in an entirely unattainable way. But he couldn’t stay away. 

Need. 

Hunger.

_“If you come back, they’ll come for you. Please be careful.”_

The girl seemed innocent. He still couldn’t pull her name from his mind. But he remembered how she smelled. How she kissed the veins on his inner arms

_“Jug, please forgive me.”_

There had been pain. And the glowing phosphorescent color of her green eyes. But now there was nothing. Now there was only the searing of the light.

“What’s wrong with him?”

The voice snapped Jughead out of the blackness of his mind. He opened his eyes to see Toni and Sweet Pea standing over him.

“You look terrible,” Sweet Pea told him honestly.

Jughead would have tried to sit up, but the darkness of the room was comforting. He could see the neon sign flickering behind Sweet Pea’s head. They were at the Whyte Wyrm.

“You fell in the alley,” Toni said, seemingly concerned that he wouldn’t remember.

“I need to go to Thornhill,” Jughead said.

Toni threw Sweet Pea a pointed look. “Told you.”

“Those Northsiders do not care about you,” Sweet Pea told him. 

They wouldn’t understand. Jughead felt like he was late for something. There was something he had to be doing. 

“Were you there last night?” Jughead asked. “Did you see the girl?”

“Seriously,” Sweet Pea said. “You need to get over this. She’s bad news. She just hangs out with those creepy Blossom twins.”

“She might know what happened to me,” Jughead said. He didn’t quite want to tell them about how much he couldn’t remember. 

“You’re not leaving this bar,” Toni warned him. “You slept all day. You’ve been weird ever since you started going to those parties. She’s going to have to come downtown if she wants to talk to you.”

He was thrilled at the thought. But after the adrenaline ceded, he realized he was also scared. There was something about her glowing green eyes that were eerie. Dangerous.

“Did you see if I left my hat there?” Jughead asked Sweet Pea. 

At least that would be some return to normalcy. 

“No,” Sweet Pea said. “You had it when I saw you last. When I left last night, I couldn’t find you. I thought they might have kidnapped you or something. Until Toni called me this afternoon.”

“That must have been a relief,” Jughead said.

But it just made him more anxious. This wasn’t where he was supposed to be right now. There was something he had to do. But he couldn’t think with his flaring migraine.

“Is my bike here?” he asked.

Both of them shook their heads solemnly. He couldn’t stay here all day. He didn’t know why. He couldn’t stay here any longer.

“Jughead, don’t,” Toni half-heartedly protested.

Everyone was lying to him. Even if they weren’t doing it intentionally, nothing was right here. Everyone was keening, needing, hearts beating, salivating. It was all too much. It was a relief when the sun went down. He didn’t need his sunglasses anymore. His headache subsided. But that just left the gnawing hunger. He walked the familiar path to Pickens Park. He didn’t know how his muscles took over and led him down the path. He hadn’t been to Pickens Park since middle school. But somehow the trek felt familiar and he walked towards a bench he didn’t remember being there. The platform slats of the bench were hard against his back. When he looked up at the stars, they were brilliant in a way he didn’t think he had seen before. And when there was a strong gust of wind, Jughead felt relief. Though he hadn’t realized he had been waiting for her.

There she was like he knew she would be. The light of the streetlamps hit her eyes and they glowed a brilliant green. But even though a part of him recognized her, there was something foreign and alien about her. She took a step forward and was faster than any person had a right to be. He couldn’t help but shrink away from her.

Her eyes narrowed. She kneeled at his feet so he had to look at her. Her cool hands took his face between them and she scowled into his eyes.

“What are you doing out here?” she finally asked.

His thoughts were jumbled. Her voice conjured fragments of memories. Memories in his trailer, blood running down his wrist. Memories of him not being afraid. He wasn’t afraid of her now. He was afraid of not knowing what was going on. He couldn’t answer her, he felt so paralyzed.

“Jug,” she said, her voice more demanding. She held his hands in hers. Her grip was strong. “You shouldn’t be out here by yourself. You know how dangerous it is.”

He tried pulling away but she was too strong. 

“I don’t,” he stumbled over his words. “Why don’t I remember you?”

Her face fell at that and let his hands go. “Shit. You haven’t fed yet.”

She stood up so quickly, he felt another breeze tousle his hair.

“You never do what you’re supposed to do,” she said, more to herself than to him.

She turned back to him just as quickly.

“Come on, Jug,” she said. “We have to get inside. They’re coming.”

“Who?” he asked, his frustration mounting. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

Suddenly she was sitting next to him on the bench. Understanding hit him with a powerful force. They had been here before.

“But you knew to come here somehow,” she said. “Didn’t you?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I just walked here.”

“I know it’s confusing,” she said. “Your memories will come back, I promise. We just have to go now. Do you have your laptop with you?”

She was already scouring his form for a sign of his messenger bag. He shook his head.

“Where?” she asked.

“In my trailer,” he said.

She was shaking her head again. “We have to get there fast.”

“I don’t have my bike.”

“That’s okay,” she said. “I know the way.”

She was too strong for him to resist. She held his hand the entire way. He felt safe when he was holding on to her. But the way her eyes flickered around in the night erratically seemed like a bad sign. It was the fastest he ever got back home on foot. She walked directly up the stairs to the trailer door without him telling her which one it was. She threw the door open. For a moment, it looked like she may have been sniffing the air. Then she let him come inside.

She slammed the door shut behind him and peeked through the blinds.

“Laptop?” she asked without looking away from the window.

“Betty, I don’t know what’s going on.”

At that, she looked over at him. It was the first time he saw her smile. 

No. Not the first time. The first time tonight. He didn’t know how he knew her name. It just came out.

“Is that your name?” he asked.

“Yes,” she answered. “It’ll come back faster now. But we just have to make sure they haven’t taken your laptop.”

Jughead went over to the closet. It was sitting on the top shelf. He took it out. It seemed to vibrate with importance. 

“What’s on here?” he asked. He sat down at the table, opening it. She sat down next to him.

“Juggie,” she said quietly.

The nickname sent a warning through him. He didn’t think he had heard that since he was a kid. But it sounded like she had said it before.

“Before you look at it,” she said, “you have to know how sorry I am. I never thought it would come to this. But I had to protect you.”

“From whatever’s out there?” he guessed.

“You know what’s out there,” she said. 

Jughead opened the laptop slowly. He thought back to how he knew where to go in Pickens Park. How memories flooded back when he ate raw meat. The first thing that drew him to Thornhill. As if a neon sign telling him exactly what he was looking for, there was a folder on his desktop labeled Thornhill. He knew as soon as he opened it, he would have to admit to himself what he knew all along.

He clicked on the folder. It contained files and pictures. Dead bodies. Missing people. Corpses drained of blood.

“What I did to you,” Betty said, “was wrong. But I had to make you strong. So they couldn’t hurt you.”

“You bit me,” he realized.

“I didn’t just bite you,” Betty said. “I killed you.”

Jughead pulled up a document. He could recognize his own voice in the writing. This was definitely from his hand. But he didn’t remember writing it.

_In the Town of Pep, Thornhill is the outlier. Abandoned for decades, it was magically populated overnight by beautiful people. Beautiful people can get away with anything, including what seems to be mass amounts of missing people. They adore attention. Strive for it, live of it. If they do live at all. Whether aliens or demons, the Blossoms are more than likely not human. All of them are like stone. Perfect and sculpted. Emotionless._

_All of them except her._

Jughead slammed the laptop down. He could see himself now, walking through the halls of Thornhill. Those creepy redheaded twins watching him as he passed. He walked right up to her. Always surprised that he kept coming back. But if he was being honest, he wasn’t coming back for an interview with a vampire anymore. He kept coming back for her.

Jughead fell to his knees on the floor. His stomach was convulsing, contracting. He gripped the carpet in pain, something to hold on to. She flew to his side, putting a cool hand on the base of his neck. 

“You need to feed,” she said.

“Am I dying?”

“No,” she said. “You’re already dead.”

Fuck.

“This is real,” he said.

“You knew it was real,” Betty said. “I know you might not be able to forgive me, but please let me fix this. Take the laptop. I don’t want them to come looking for us here.”

“Where are we going?” When he thought back on it, all those times he heard Toni and Sweet Pea’s steady heartbeats, he knew that his was quiet. His heart hadn’t beat since Betty bit him last night. 

“Fox Forest.”

She was pulling him along again. Memories kept flooding back but jumbled all out of order. Kissing and biting were intermixed. He couldn’t put what was right together. He kept clinging to her hand.

“Won’t they find us out here?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied, not looking back at him. She was sniffing the air, he knew. She was looking for something. “By then, I’m hoping they won’t be able to hurt you.”

“Because I’ll be like you?” he asked.

Betty turned back to him. “I know you don’t want to hurt anyone. But it’s too late for that now. You either survive or die.”

Before he had a chance to react her head snapped up. Her eyes were glowing, and he knew her lips were obscuring the sharp teeth behind them. Fox Forest had a record of hunting attacks in the northeast. He wasn’t sure how many of those were actual animal attacks or something more nefarious. Betty was walking swiftly through the woods and somehow, he could keep up with her. He could smell it too. The blood.

“Hello, sweet cousin.”  
  
Betty’s hands collided with Jughead’s chest before he could register who had spoken. He flew backward before his shoulder was clipped by a tree branch. He hit the forest floor with a thud. Betty was between him and the long-haired female. Her skin seemed to glow in the moonlight.

“You didn’t think you could hide him from us all night,” the redhead said, “did you?”

“He’s like us,” Betty said. “You’re not allowed to hurt him.”

“We heard you,” she said. “He hasn’t transitioned yet. And even when he does, do you think you’ll be allowed back in the coven? You’re a traitor to your kind.”

They were speaking in low voices, but his ears could still pick up what they were saying. It was hard to ignore the blood, though. It was stronger now. The sounds of their conversation as being obscured by something more important. Blood pumping. He struggled to his feet, lulled by the promise of food. He crept through the forest, away from Betty. He couldn’t ignore the desire, the hunger. He could hear branches cracking. He looked back for a moment. The redhead’s fingers were wrapped around Betty’s throat, holding her up against a tree. Betty’s feet dangled a foot off the ground.

She was dying.

_Thump. Thump. Thump._

Blood was in the air now.

He could be weak, or he could be strong. He remembered how her teeth bit into the flesh of his neck. His body fought against it, but he hadn’t been scared. He knew that now. His blood had rushed into her mouth and then it was all black. 

She had done it to help him. And now he had to help her.

Dilton Doiley actually did have a hunting accident. Still, under eighteen, he hadn’t had the proper gun safety training and was struggling with a bullet wound to his thigh. The blood was intoxicating. Jughead finally let himself go. No longer restrained by fear and confusion. He knew what he had to do. He was on Dilton in an instant. Blood hit the back of Jughead’s throat, and his stomach stopped protesting. But that wasn’t the same for the rest of his body. Dilton cried out in pain and surprise. Soon it wasn’t just the two of them anymore.

The long-haired vampire was in front of him snarling, her silent twin next to her. Jughead yelled out in pain. More pain than he had ever felt. His bones felt like they were twisting, changing. His gums were on fire. Teeth shifting and growing where they hadn’t been before. And finally, two elongated canines sprouted from his gums. 

The world was new.

* * *

Cheryl and Jason. He could remember their names now. They never liked him. Ever since he walked into Thornhill. He had gone with the intent of being Christian Slater in his own rendition of Anne Rice. He never expected to meet Betty. Betty who was warm and kind. Betty who despite himself, he was immediately infatuated with.

Betty refused to bite him for a very long time.

He remembered everything now. The longing and need that had nothing to do with hunger for food, but hunger for something else. He knew vampires had been in Riverdale for a long time. He just never thought he would want to be near one so badly. 

Of course, she was beautiful, smart as a whip. But she was humane. Somehow, she felt more than even he could. She granted him his interview but in the end refused to look at him or speak to him again. So, he kept going back. He kept going to see her. Things only changed when she visited him at his trailer for the first time.

He was in his white wife beater and suspenders. Her hair was down, and he saw her eyes glow. They raked over the skin of his neck and he understood there was no going back. He invited death into his house. And he would do it again. He showed her the articles he had compiled. They worried her; he knew. She had warned him about her cousins. The bloodthirsty fiends that had killed for less. A human who knew all their secrets. He was a liability. 

“So why did you come?” he asked. “You leading them right to me?”

“Maybe I’m here to kill you.” She had been keeping him at arm’s length. 

But he was tired of that. He kissed her desperately against the fridge, relishing the feeling of her hard body against his. She slammed him against his couch, straddling him easily. Her mouth was everywhere, and he couldn’t keep up. She could do whatever she wanted to him.

“You were supposed to stay away,” she warned him, his lips moving to her neck and chest. But she sighed with contentment. 

“You came here, remember?” he said breathlessly.

He wasn’t complaining. She not only made him feel alive but also strangely accepted. She seemed to understand the isolation he felt. And he never felt less alone than when he was with her. His heart hammered against his chest. Not in fear, but intoxicating anticipation. She was kissing him there and he anticipated her teeth biting into his neck. But it never came. He thought he heard the slow sound of snarling and suddenly her weight was gone. He sat up on the couch, scouring the trailer for her. For a moment he couldn’t find her. And then she was there.

She had hoisted herself high on the wall where it met the ceiling. He wouldn’t have seen her there if he hadn’t heard the sounds of her panting. He absentmindedly thought that he didn’t know vampires could breathe. But there she was, her feet planted firmly on the wall, her hands braced on the ceiling. He watched in disbelief as she suspended herself there, her eyes glowing, long canines protruding from her mouth. He rose from the couch slowly and approached her like you would a scared animal. Her breathing was starting to calm but she was looking at him with warning eyes. He held up a hand to her, tentatively. She shook her head.

“Don’t come any closer,” she said. 

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not,” she said. “I could hurt you.”

Something about that didn’t seem so bad. 

“I’m not afraid.”

She was on him again. She flew down from the wall without hesitation and pinned him to the couch again. She snarled angrily.

“Do you want me to bite you?”

 _Maybe_ , he thought. He hoped she couldn’t read minds. He didn’t quite have a line on what the correct vampire lore was in this situation. Suddenly being bitten was all he wanted her to do. She was looking at him curiously, the angry breaths lessening. He took the opportunity to kiss her on the mouth, making sure their lips touched over her fangs. She looked startled as he pulled away. 

“Stay,” he said.

It was an invitation. The kind he knew was dangerous to give. She had already become so consumed she said she could have killed him. But she could have killed him many times before this and never did. Her kiss was unrelenting. She straddled his hips on the couch, moving down his neck. He let his head loll over the back of the couch. He felt his beanie fall off.

And then she bit him. 

It hurt at first. But her body undulated as she groaned into his neck and he realized with a shock that he was hard. Surprising at the rate his blood was leaving his body. But he knew it was real when she bit even harder. He gripped her back, pushing her farther into him. He was moaning with her, never feeling such a powerful reaction to anyone before. He gasped her name loudly and she tore herself away from his neck.

Her chest was heaving, his blood rolling down the corner of her mouth. She didn’t let it fall, stopping its trail with the palm of her hand. She didn’t move from her position on top of him. He was still grinding against her, unable to stop whatever friction between them he could get. He looked up at her. Her canines had receded to their human size, though her teeth were still a grim red color. His brain told him to calm down, but his body was still surging. There was something strange about this, he knew. Not normal, even. But he wasn’t normal, and neither was she. 

She clasped his wrists, one in each of her hands and she pinned them to the couch so he would stop squirming.

“Relax,” she advised, her voice thick with something he assumed was arousal. He could relate.

“I can’t,” he gasped honestly. 

“I know,” she said. “It’s a reaction to the bite. It’ll pass.”

But it wasn’t. He swore that it wasn’t. He pressed his mouth against hers, desperate for her touch. She humored him, kissing him back. But she pulled away too quickly.

“Please.” He knew that begging wasn’t exactly attractive, but he couldn’t help himself. He needed to feel her penetrating him again.

He kissed down her neck, hoping it would elicit a response in her. She sighed again. There was a pleasure in it. She still pulled away all the same. 

“Again,” he said.

“It’ll kill you.”

Finally, he was starting to feel himself come down from the high. She released his wrists and let him relax against the couch. But even so, he was straining to feel her against him.

“Please,” he said. “I love you.”

Her snarl was full of rage this time. She shoved a single hand against his chest and he fell horizontal against the couch.

“You don’t,” she said. “The toxin from the bite makes you think that, but you don’t.”

She released him quickly and it felt like a ten-ton weight had been lifted from his chest. He tried to sit up, but all his energy was expelled from him.

“Betty?”

He couldn’t find her again. But she wasn’t suspended against the wall like before. She was sitting at the kitchen table, her shoulders hunched, her head in her hands. He let himself regain his strength and then crawled over to her. He laid his hand against her thigh.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“It’s not your fault,” she said. “I didn’t remember. I should have realized you’d react that way.”

But even as she explained it, he still felt that the emotions were genuine. He looked at her and didn’t feel any different. The desperation and powerful pull of attraction had lessened. He didn’t need her to bite him again. But he still loved her. That he knew was still there. 

“Getting involved with a human is always a mistake,” she said. “They all warned me.”

“I don’t think it’s a mistake,” he said defensively. 

“How do you see this ending, Jughead?” she asked, forlorn. “They’ll find out you’ve been investigating them. And then they’ll kill you.”

“We could figure something out,” he said.

“But why?” she asked. “In the morning your feelings will fade. I can walk away and they’ll never know what you did. Why put yourself through that?”

“Would it be easy for you?” he asked. “To walk away?”

“We’re not talking about me.”

“Just be honest, Betty.” It was the first time he felt anger towards her. She was tapping out. It was weak and she was anything but weak. “If you only came here to feed off me then just be done with it.”

She looked stricken. 

“You think you know everything,” she said after a moment.

“No,” he assured her. “I admit that I don’t know anything about this. If you can say you’re over it, then fine. Walk away.”

She smiled bitterly. “I know you don’t believe me, but I’m trying to protect you.”

“Can you do that without breaking up with me?”

Breaking up. It sounded so normal. Like they were just teenagers in a small town. 

“If you want to hurt me, that’s the only thing that will do it.”

“I need to process this,” she said, standing up. She walked back with him on the couch. “I want you to make an informed decision. And you can’t do that in the dead of night.”

He said that he would close his eyes. Just for a moment. But when he opened them again, they were lying parallel next to each other on the couch, their limbs intertwined. He woke to her gasping in pain as the sun peeked through the blinds. She was gone from the couch in the flash. He saw her in the shadows of the bathroom, cradling her burnt arm.

“Shit,” he said, immediately yanking the blinds completely closed. The trailer was blissfully shrouded in darkness.

Betty was recuperating in the bathroom, leaning her head against the porcelain of the bathtub. Her arm was raw and scabbing over.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She was shaking her head. 

“Let me take a look at that,” he said, trying to angle her damaged arm towards him.

“It’s not my arm,” she said. “I didn’t mean to spend all night here. They’ll know I spent the night away from the nest.”

“And that’s bad,” Jughead guessed.

“They’ll follow my scent when night falls,” she said. “And come straight here. They’ll find everything on your laptop. They’ll see the marks on your neck.”

His hand went absentmindedly to where she bit him. There was already an angry scab over where her mouth had been.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“They’ll be able to tell,” she said. “It was passionate. They’ll know that I care about you.”

“Betty,” he said slowly. “What I said last night—”

“It’s okay,” she said hastily.

“I still mean it,” he finished.

She tilted her head towards his, her eyes searching his. He wasn’t sure what she was looking for. The truth? He was an open book with her.

“You don’t know what that means,” Betty said. “There are only so many things we can do now. To save you. I’m going to get weaker. Cheryl is older than me and very strong. On my best day, I might not be able to take her. If she gets here, I won’t be able to fight her off.”

“Feed on me.”

Betty’s eyes were humorless at the suggestion. 

“Right before nightfall,” he said. “And you’ll be strong.”

Betty leaned her head against the tub. “I’m tired. I need to rest.”

Jughead helped her up and walked her through the trailer, avoiding wayward sunbeams that streaked through the small rooms. The bedroom was dark. He laid in bed with her for a long time. She was quiet, even after his prodding. Eventually, she slept and he dozed off for a few hours. He was startled awake later. Fear leaped through him when he rose in darkness. Betty wasn’t in bed with him. His eyes adjusted to the darkness. There were no sounds. Maybe she had just gone, and Cheryl wasn’t coming. He struggled to his feet, fighting off sleep.

He made his way to the kitchen, fumbling for the light. He never made it.

Her voice was sharp in the darkness behind me.

“I’m sorry, Juggie,” she said and bit into his neck. 

His legs gave out and he crumpled to the floor. Her hand was draped over his chest from behind. Pulling his back flush against her front as she drained him. It was more than the night before. This was serious.

He felt his life draining away from him. 

“You have to trust me,” she said when she finally let him go. He laid on the floor of the trailer in his blood, powerless to move. “I will come back for you. You just have to wait, okay?”

He heard a graphic wet sound and the taste of blood was flooding his mouth. She was pressing her wrist against him. He struggled for a moment and then let her feed him. Was this what it was like? The hunger?

She wrenched her arm away from him. He rolled on his back. His heart was slowing as he bled out on the floor. The door of the trailer slammed behind Betty as she left him to die.

* * *

Jughead blinked for a millisecond and all his memories came back. His need for her. The way her teeth bit into him. 

How she killed him.

“You turned him, you fucking coward,” Cheryl swore.

He could see easily now. He didn’t need the light of the stars or the moon. He could see Cheryl as clear as though it were day. He could see Jason had taken Cheryl’s position in thrusting Betty to the ground. His hands were wrapped around Betty’s neck and it took Jughead a moment to realize Betty was gasping so hard because Jason was trying to pull her head right off her shoulders. Jughead made a sound he never made before. A ferocious snarl and he lunged, knocking Jason off Betty. His hunger was raging in him and it gave him the strength he never thought he would possess.

“How _dare_ —” Cheryl started.

“You can’t touch him, Cheryl,” Betty said in a tone that seemed like a reminder. “You can’t hurt one of your kind.”

Jughead struggled to pay attention. Now that Betty was out of danger, his hunger returned in full force. Not only could he remember all of his muddled memories of the past weeks. Betty’s blood also gave him something else. He could see all of her memories too. Nights ago in the trailer gave him something else to gnaw on. It wasn’t his desire he was struggling with. She had been ravenous for him that night. Desperate not to drain him of his blood. Desperate not to fuck him into oblivion while she bit into him. 

The thoughts were all confusing. He felt his arousal rise again but he knew this wasn’t the right time or place. He was so hungry. For her. For blood. For violence. Everything was compounded. Betty had maneuvered herself between him and Cheryl. Jason was stalking back and forth behind Cheryl, watching them with careful, silent eyes.

“You’ve endangered us all,” Cheryl reminded her, not able to come up with another excuse.

“And I fixed it,” Betty said. “Like I said I would.”

“You turned your pet,” Cheryl said. “That’s not the same thing as fixing it.”

“You need to walk away,” Betty said. “He can’t control himself yet. You need to let me handle him or we really will be exposed.”

Cheryl backed away and she was gone. Jason followed. Jughead could hear the twins recede into the woods. It was so quiet he almost thought he was alone for a moment. He could still smell Dilton’s blood smeared on the bark of trees. Dilton was running, the pace of his heart quickening. His footsteps echoed and Jughead could pinpoint exactly where he was. He could find him in a second. Jughead tried to lurch forward but his knees buckled. His stomach was cramping, and he couldn’t find the strength to get up.

“I’m so sorry.” She was suddenly next to him. The pain seemed to lessen now. He could feel her wherever she was. He felt the importance of her. He could see through her eyes, from the memories of her blood coursing through him. She was his maker. That meant something. “I didn’t want to make this choice for you, Jughead.”

He used the rest of his strength to circle his arms around her. She was still for a moment, and then returned his embrace. 

“I told you,” he said, pulling back to look at her. He could see her clearly in the darkness. Her crystalline eyes swimming with emotion. “I’d feel the same in the morning.”

She initiated the kiss. This time she wasn’t so strong that she could overpower him. They were the same now. But he still wanted her.

“I thought I could walk it back.”

“You don’t have to walk it back,” he said. “I’m with you.”

“It wasn’t your choice,” she reminded him.

“It’s a commitment,” he said. “Isn’t it? You’ll have to take care of me. You’ll have to teach me how to be good.”

He was so tired. He was sagging against her. 

“You have to feed again,” she said. “You’ll have to feed frequently until you stabilize.”

He knew this. He could remember how afraid she was to turn him. There was indecision and desperation. The knowledge that he may never forgive her. How she wanted him.

“Show me,” he said.

* * *

Betty had been in her rebellious period when she met the Blossoms. She had decided to take some time away from her maker. Cheryl and Jason had been everything intoxicating about being young and immortal. They fed indiscriminately and hypnotized their victims without question. That was the best scenario. When Betty could convince them not to kill their bloodbags. But it was Jason and Cheryl she listened to when Jughead walked into Thornhill the first night. Betty had noticed him before. He hadn’t noticed her.

But that night she had to intercede. If she didn’t, he would have gotten himself killed, trying to talk to Jason or even Bret who was watching even closer. Bret would have no issue with snapping Jughead’s neck without a second thought. He was asking too many questions. Betty grabbed him by the hand and pulled him outside on the pretense of getting a cigarette.

She didn’t smoke.

There was no question in Jughead. He knew what she was the moment he walked in. So she couldn’t for the life of her understand why he would ask so many questions. She told him as much and he flashed her a confident smile. It was what he did. Find answers to questions.

“You’ll have to glamour him, of course,” Cheryl said the next night when he showed up again. “I can smell the arousal on him from here. He wants to die.”

Betty thought it had less to do with sexual arousal than it was to get to the truth. But Cheryl was right. He kept showing up and asking more questions. She had to make sure the boys didn’t see him too much. They were territorial. Cheryl only had a human pet once. Jason killed Heather and Cheryl never spoke of her again.

Jughead was so ordinary. Inquisitive. Strange. He should be boring. But he wasn’t. She started looking forward to visits and she knew that Cheryl was right. On the off chance he got hurt, he could spill his guts. It was better if she wiped his mind afterward. She couldn’t do it at first. Not until he started excitedly telling her about the articles he found in the library. She knew that her mounting obsession with this little human would not end well. That night Jughead asked how one turned into a vampire and she knew she had to act. Push him away. Make him never come back. Instead, she told him everything. How he was in danger if he ever came back. How she would have to brainwash him. 

It had the opposite effect, of course. She ended up biting his wrist when he offered it. She wiped his memory every night after that, but he still came back. She shouldn’t have told him so much. Left the evidence on his skin. One time in the darkness, he told her that he could find her with his eyes closed. Betty hadn’t been in love in her human life and it seemed the wrong time to start. Turning him was a nonstarter. No one in their right mind would forgive someone for killing them.

But Jughead wasn’t like anyone else. That was the whole point.

When she killed him, he still found her in the dark. He took it like a natural. His bloodlust substantial and his feelings more potent than she originally thought. They almost rivaled hers. She taught him how to feed without killing and make their prey seem like it was their idea.

Blood smeared on his mouth, when he looked at her, the expression in his eyes made her quiver.

**Author's Note:**

> Believe it or not, this fit had a draft that was much longer. I have a lot more ideas for continuation, though I'm not if and when that will happen. Thank you for reading. Happy Halloween!


End file.
